This is a test… only a test… for the Geotag feature

Just checking to see how the Geotag feature of WordPress works via my LG Droid.

…well, I’m bummed. I was going to take photos of two buildings at VSDB in Staunton. Both predated the Civil War, and were used as part of the Confederate hospital (=>*) here. I have learned, just now, that they were torn down, and more modern buildings are being erected. Another huge loss for Staunton in the way of historical CW era buildings!

So, here’s a shot of an era building from the grounds of VSDB. It’s the old Western State Asylum (=>**).

*The site of the Confederate hospital was on the grounds of the “Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb” (which predated the war), now known as the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind. In 1861, the residents of the “Asylum” were moved to the Virginia Female Institute (now Stuart Hall), to make room for service as a Confederate hospital.

**Actually known as the “Western Virginia Lunatic Asylum”, later serving as a prison… and now being converted into condo spaces, without disrupting the facade.

For more information about these CW sites and more in Augusta County, Virginia, see my book, Gibraltar of the Shenandoah: Civil War Sites and Stories of Staunton, Waynesboro, and Augusta County, Virginia (2004).